Student Steel Bridge Competitions in Full Swing

University of Florida constructed the winning bridge in last year’s NSSBC championship. (Photo: T. Bart Quimby, courtesy of ASCE)

March102016

The 2016 ASCE/AISC National Student Steel Bridge Competition (NSSBC) is underway! The season kicks off with three regional competitions being held today through Saturday and 15 more to follow in late March through April, culminating with the national competition over Memorial Day weekend, May 27-28 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Each spring, student teams compete in 18 regional competitions, and the top qualified teams will compete in the finals. Now in its 25th year, the program brings together engineering students from across North America to assemble their own designed and fabricated steel bridges (at one-tenth the size of a full-scale bridge) while striving for the shortest time under a specific set of building rules that change each year.

There are plenty of opportunities to attend one of these exciting events! View the full schedule of regional competitions (including host school contact info) on ASCE’s website. For more about the national competition, visit www.aisc.org/steelbridge or www.nssbc.info. You can also learn about how the competition has evolved over the past quarter-century in the article “Going National” in our current (March) issue.